Militant terrorists are invading Iraq and threatening a full-scale civil war. President Maliki is asking for help but over the weekend, President Obama went golfing and the Vice President went to the World Cup. Gary Varvel

Twenty-five years ago this week, in the early hours of Jan. 17, 1991, the remarkable Persian Gulf War political coalition assembled, and led by U.S. President George H. W. Bush, moved from "Shield" to "Storm.”

The “Shield” was Operation Desert Shield, code name for the hastily organized political and military response to Saddam Hussein’s Aug. 2, 1990, invasion and annexation of oil-rich Kuwait. The “Storm” was, of course, Operation Desert Storm.

The code names were apt professional poetry. A shield is a defensive armament designed to block enemy blows and buy time for a counter strike. Desert Shield was defensive. It bought time to create a productive political coalition and build up coalition forces in the Persian Gulf region.

Desert Storm evokes a violent, horizon-dominating sandstorm — definitely apt for combat in Arabia. It also has a classic military reference. To take a fortification “by storm” means to seize it by swift, ferocious assault.

Desert Storm was indeed swift and ferocious, first in the air and then on the ground. However, it was also politically calculated. Though Desert Storm may have appeared militarily unlimited on television, Desert Storm was part of a limited war. The Persian Gulf War was waged to achieve intentionally limited objectives. Toppling Saddam was never part of the deal made by the 34 nations in the coalition. If he fell, so be it. If a bomb hit a command bunker with the dictator, well, he shouldn’t have sacked Kuwait.

Bush’s Aug. 5, 1990 promise became the coalition’s diplomatic glue: “This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait.”

Desert Storm was the organized and synchronized offensive military punch that would fulfill Bush’s promise.

The air war that began Jan. 17, 1991, was a media war. Spectacular media. A CNN news crew in a Baghdad hotel provided live video of the U.S.-led air attacks in and around Iraq’s capital. A cameraman filmed a series of explosions that left flickering arcs of light along the horizon. Later in the day, officers in Riyadh and the Pentagon said coalition aircraft were systematically destroying the Iraqi air defenses ringing the city.

On Jan. 29, three under-strength Iraqi armored divisions launched a ground attack on the Saudi border town of Kafji. Air attacks had battered the Iraqi divisions. U.S. Marines, Saudis and Qataris defended the Kafji area. One Iraqi armored column managed to fight its way into Kafji. On Feb. 1, a Saudi-Qatari counter-attack re-took it.

“The 100 Hour Ground War” is a public relations fiction. Battles like Kafji, the 1st Cavalry Division’s probes along the Saudi-Kuwait border and numerous Special Forces actions occurred before Feb. 24, 1991, the “official start” of Desert Storm’s ground phase.

But on that day, two U.S. Marine divisions backed by a U.S. Army tank brigade attacked north from Saudi Arabia. U.S. Army VII Corps, led by the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, attacked west of Kuwait. Shaken Iraqi soldiers surrendered en masse. On Feb. 28, President Bush deemed Kuwait liberated and declared a ceasefire. Not everyone got the word. On March 2, U.S. forces fought an Iraqi Republican Guard unit in a still-controversial battle.

Desert Storm will be remembered as a spectacular demonstration of U.S. Cold War-era military capabilities used in a regional conventional war. Historians may conclude that Bush’s artful leadership of the diverse coalition was The Persian Gulf War’s most remarkable war fighting achievement.

Austin Bay is an author and colonel (retired) in the Army Reserve. He writes for Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. Send email through Creators.com or austinbay.net.